VIOLENCE IN Jamaican schools is now so frequent that it threatens to become a major national crisis if not brought under control. The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is right to raise an alarm about the safety of its members, and the response of Senator Noel Monteith on behalf of the Ministry of Education seems defeatist, to say the least. The senator says that the problem was discussed with the JTA at a regular monthly meeting but "they don't have the solution either". This implies a serious leadership vacuum and will hardly be reassuring either to teachers or the parents of children caught up in the madness.
Picture a four-year-old cringing under a school bench while a gunman points his weapon at a tearful teacher, threatening to kill her. This is what happened at the Eltham Basic School in St. Catherine during a daylight robbery on Tuesday. The psychic damage to children caught up in such violent confrontations is almost too painful to contemplate, and we think the newly-established Early Childhood Commission should indicate to the public what role, if any, it sees itself being able to play in helping to find a solution to the problem. Perhaps basic schools without proper security fencing should not qualify for registration by the commission. Perhaps there should be a specially designed warning system linking schools to the nearest police station so that, at the touch of an alarm button, police can respond to an emergency. Experience teaches that calling 119 does not work.
In addition to external acts of violence against Jamaican school children, there is the problem of internal conflict between youngsters which has resulted in a number of killings, the most recent being the death of Zanute Simpson, a budding songwriter, fatally stabbed by a fellow student during an altercation. There have also been cases of schoolgirls fighting over boyfriends, resulting in serious injuries, and even death. Add to this internal environment of violence, the confrontational attitude of many parents who resent their children being disciplined by teachers, and the dimensions of the problem take on frightening proportions.
We urge the authorities to set up a special task force to focus on the problem of violence in schools and to provide whatever resources are needed to improve the situation. No country can afford to have a generation of children exposed to such a continuous bombardment of violent behaviour by adults and their peers.
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